DC Comics app

Digital comics | ICv2 estimates the total value of the digital comics market in 2011 as $25 million, triple the 2010 figure, and boldly predicts that digital will account for 10 percent of the entire comics market in 2012. Digital sales grew faster in the second half of the year, which ICv2 attributes to three factors: DC’s decision to release its New 52 comics digitally the same day as print, the industry-wide trend toward same-day print and digital releases, and the proliferation of different platforms on which to read digital comics. As for digital taking away from print, the publishing executives ICv2 has spoken to over the past few months don’t seem to think that is happening. [ICv2]

Retailing | Retailer and journalist Matt Price takes the temperature at the ComicsPRO Annual Members Meeting, which kicks off today in Dallas, noting that members remain interested in DC’s publishing plans, and report “very strong sales” for Image’s Fatale and Thief of Thieves. [Nerdage]

comiXology

Digital comics | ComiXology CEO David Steinberger talks about how comiXology got started (he was trying to figure out how to catalog his comic collection), his first comic book and what comic art he would most like to own. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Comics | Heritage Auctions will sell 12 “ashcan” comic books created in the 1930s and ’40s for trademark purposes, including one of three Action Funnies known to exist. [Art Daily]

Creators | Japanese creator Takehiko Inoue has resumed work on his long-running series Vagabond, after taking a lengthy break, first for health reasons and then because he lost interest in it. He told fans he wouldn’t go back to work on the series, which is serialized in Kodansha’s Morning magazine, until he regained his enthusiasm for it. That seems to have happened, and the new chapter is being colored. Vagabond is published in North America by Viz Media. [Anime News Network]

Saucer Country #1

Creators | Paul Cornell discusses his upcoming Vertigo series Saucer Country, which combines his love of UFOs with politics: “I don’t like stories about stupid politicians, I like stories about politicians who show skill and daring, and by the end of the first arc, Arcadia’s used her political instincts to get her and her team out of an immediate danger, and on the way to being able to use the powers of a candidate to start investigating what happened to her.” [USA Today]

Creators | Amy Reeder talks about her new gig as the interior artist for Batwoman: “What I like about Kate is that she’s so subtle for a lead character … like she says very little and our job is to read behind the lines, which makes it impossible not to feel invested and empathetic towards her. She’s got a little of the edgy in her. She’s a nuanced balance between feminine and masculine, which is tough to pin down.” [DC Women Kicking Ass]

Creators | Yuko Shimizu, cover artist for Vertigo’s The Unwritten, discusses her process, influences and career. [Multiversity Comics]

Creators | Noelene Clark talks with artist I.N.J. Culbard about his upcoming Vertigo series The New Deadwardians, and adapting H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. [Hero Complex]

Friends With Boys

Creators | Eva Volin chats with Faith Erin Hicks about her upcoming graphic novel Friends With Boys, fantasy, young-adult comics, and keeping motivated while struggling with the creation process: “I started doing online comics years and years ago, and even though comics are really hard to create, I fell in love with making them. With comics you have to learn how to draw everything really well. It’s not just drawing people, comics are backgrounds and props and cars and animals and learning to draw these things from all angles and in a style that is appealing and fresh. It’s a constant struggle to update and improve my skills. But even though it’s a struggle, it’s something I really love to do. A well made comic is my favourite thing in the world, and I want to someday be the person who makes that comic and gives a reader enjoyment.  It’s like that completely annoying saying: Nothing worth doing is easy to do. Besides, someone has to make comics about flying unicorns and puppies … (Disclaimer: I have not made this graphic novel yet and probably never will. Apologies to 11 year old me.)” [Good Comics for Kids]

Creators | Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa guests on the comiXologist podcast to talk about his work on the graphic novel Fantastic Four: Season One, and other matters. [comiXology Blog]

Creators | Ryan North answers questions from the public about his upcoming Aventure Time comic. [The BOOM!Pen]

Creators | Katie Monnin interviews Star Wars comics writer John Jackson Miller. Fun fact: He has a master’s degree in Soviet studies. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

More than nine months after an original splash page from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sold for a record $448,125, Heritage Auctions is offering two more original pieces of Frank Miller art, expected to bring in more than $50,000 each.

Consigned by Miller himself, the pieces are the cover to 2006′s Absolute Dark Knight and the frontispiece from the 1997 10th-anniversary edition of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

“It took me years to define, in my own mind, Batman as less a creature of vengeance than of vigor,” Miller said of the Absolute Dark Knight cover. “This piece is one of my personal favorites. To me, it sums the man up.” And on the Batman and Robin splash: “Like any hero, Batman is complex. Here we see him as a father figure, instructing one of my favorite creations, dear Carrie Kelly.”

The two pieces will be auctioned Feb. 23 by Heritage, which notes that while Miller worked with inker Klaus Janson and colorist Lynn Varley on The Dark Knight Returns, “these images are rare examples of 100 percent Frank Miller pencils and inks on his most popular character.”

Diary of a Zombie Kid

Legal | Antarctic Press has agreed to stop selling Diary of a Zombie Kid and Diary of a Zombie Kid: Rotten Rules under the terms of a temporary restraining order issued Wednesday by a federal court. Wimpy Kid Inc. is suing Antarctic for trademark infringement, among other things, claiming that its Diary of a Wimpy Kid parodies are too close to the real thing. Antarctic CEO Joe Dunn signed the temporary restraining order, signifying that Antarctic agreed to it; the two companies are negotiating a settlement, according to court papers. One interesting tidbit: Diary of a Zombie Kid sold all of 850 copies in comics shops in August, while the first printing on the latest Wimpy Kid book was 6 million. [ICv2]

Retailing | The auction for the inventory of Arizona retail chain Atomic Comics announced last week has been moved to Jan. 10. [Sierra Auction Management]

Comics | Bayou Arcana is a new anthology of Southern Gothic horror comics with a gender twist: All the comics are written by men and illustrated by women. There are some pretty broad generalizations in this article — “There is a certain sensitivity that you find in women’s art that just does not appear in a lot of guys’ work,” says the project editor, James Pearson — but the project itself sounds interesting. [The Guardian]

Publishing | Jim Salicrup, editor-in-chief of Papercutz, discusses the publisher’s line of all-ages comics: “If the Big Two say that the audience for all-ages comics isn’t there in the comic book stores, they may be right, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be created. As I said, some stores are very interested in developing this market, and certainly there is more material (mostly graphic novels) now available than there has been in many years. Papercutz, which was started by publisher Terry Nantier and me, has now been around for seven years, and although it has been a major struggle at times, there seems to be more and more openness to comics for all ages. You may wonder why stores would be reluctant to attract new customers, but in these difficult times, trying to simply survive may distract many a store.” [Bleeding Cool]

Steve Niles

Creators | LA Weekly has a lengthy profile of 30 Days of Night creator Steve Niles: “I don’t know why I like horror. Everyone always asks me that. I think it’s a big release. We work out our fears by being scared. Horror guys, we work out a lot.” [LA Weekly]

Creators | Kurtis J. Wiebe and Riley Rossmo discuss their Image Comics horror series Green Wake. [Fangoria]

Creators | The local newspaper profiles Kennebunk, Maine, creator Sarah Searle, who incorporated real events and people into her graphic novel Under the Apple Tree, which is set in Kennebunk in 1943. [Seacoast Online]

Creators | Richard Bruton interviews mother-and-son comics team John and Patrice Aggs about their latest graphic novel The Boss. [Forbidden Planet blog]

Comics | Robot 6 contributor J. Caleb Mozzocco questions the wisdom of DC Comics developing new properties based on Alan Moore and David Gibbons’ Watchmen, given the reluctance of readers to embrace characters outside the DC Universe. [Every Day Is Like Wednesday]

Smile

Graphic novels | Librarian Robin Brenner runs the numbers to see which graphic novels circulated the most in her library over the past year; some of the results surprised her. Library circulations are an interesting contrast to sales charts, and I suspect they are a truer reflection of what children and teens are reading as kids generally don’t have a lot of money to spend on comics. [Good Comics for Kids]

Retailing | The Newark Post profiles local comic shop Captain Blue Hen, which has a “pay for A’s” incentive for school kids: Earn a dollar credit at the store for every A on your report card. [Newark Post]

Sales charts | John Jackson Miller has posted the last 20 years’ worth of Diamond end-of-year lists on his site, chronicling the best-selling comics for each year. He’s also set up a page with just the No. 1 best-selling comic and graphic novel for each of those 20 years. [Comichron]

Cosplay | HBO reality TV star and brothel owner Dennis Hof plans to open a brothel outside Las Vegas with a science fiction theme. The “alien cathouse” is expected to open early next year, and Hof has recruited Heidi Fleiss, former Hollywood madame and a reality star herself, to plan the costumes and decor, calling her his “chief alien design queen.” [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Atomic Comics inventory

Retailing | The inventory Arizona retail chain Atomic Comics, which abruptly closed its four locations in late August amid the bankruptcy of owner Michael Malve, will be sold at auction Jan. 3 Jan. 10 in Phoenix, both live and online. Known nationally for its in-store signings, innovative marketing and sheer size, the 23-year-old chain gained international exposure last year when its name and logo were featured prominently in Kick-Ass, the film adaptation of the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Photos of the inventory to be liquidated can be found on the website of the auction company. Update: The date of the auction has changed to Jan. 10. [Sierra Auction Management]

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon continues his yearly holiday interview series by talking to Tom Neely, Emily Nilsson and Virginia Paine about the future of Sparkplug Comic Books. [The Comics Reporter]

Publishing | Tim Stroup, co-founder of the Grand Comics Database, recently dug up some old comics sales figures from the 1940s; John Jackson Miller analyzes them and reaches an interesting conclusion: “comics may be reaching far fewer eyeballs, but it’s a more profitable business to be in today.” [The Comichron]

comiXology

Digital | ComiXology CEO David Steinberger talks about the development of comiXology, including his initial inspiration, which was to create a way for people to see new releases and create pull lists via the internet. [Mashable Business]

Publishing | Tina Anderson, who publishes her own graphic novels, had a good year in 2011, and she provides an interesting view of the business end of self-publishing from the author’s perspective—not just how big a share of the sales she gets but also what it’s like dealing with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other distributors and retailers in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and benefit to the creator. [Gynocrat, Ink.]

Retailing | The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs spotlights the comic shop Comics N’ Vegetables’ win of the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award last summer. [The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

Batman #4

Creators | Scott Snyder discusses his run at Batman, in particular this week’s issue, which he says is “one of the emotional keystones of the entire run.” [USA Today]

Creators | Drew Friedman discusses his latest book, Old Jewish Comedians. [Heeb]

Commentary | Matthew Meylikhov makes the case for buying Gødland. [Multiversity Comics]

Commentary | Patrick Smith reviews the first two issues of Action Lab Entertainment’s Princeless. [Spandexless]

Commentary | Alyssa Rosenberg explores questions of magic and mental illness in Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover’s Gingerbread Girl. [ThinkProgress]

Education | Mohammed Yohan profiles a high school graphic novel course in which students not only read graphic novels but create their own. [my.hsj.org]

Graded at 9.0, the rare 1938 comic easily surpassed the previous record of $1.5 million set in March 2010 for the same issue, featuring the first appearance of Superman. That copy was graded slightly lower, at 8.5.

Vincent Zurzolo, chief operating officer of ComicConnect/Metropolis Collectibles, told Comic Riffs that the issue that sold this evening — bidding closed at 7:25 p.m. ET — is the best copy of Action Comics he’s ever seen.

“The buyer was extremely excited about the prospect of bidding on this,” he said. “I think he had an adrenalin rush for the last two hours.”

The comic was stolen from Cage’s Los Angeles home in 2000, and discovered in April by an unidentified man who claims to have bought the contents of an abandoned San Fernando Valley, California, storage locker. Although Zurzolo wouldn’t reveal the comic’s previous owner, he did confirm that his company played a role in its recovery.

About 100 copies of Action Comics #1 are believed to exist, but only a handful of those are in good condition.

"The Sport of Tycoons," by Carl Barks

Carl Barks’ 1974 painting “The Sport of Tycoons,” which features the iconic image of Scrooge McDuck swimming in his gold-filled vault, sold at auction last week for a record $262,900.

The painting is based on Barks’ often-reprinted 1952 tale “Only a Poor Old Man,” the first story in which Scrooge was the main character (in which, while swimming in his money bin, he says, “I love to dive around in it like a porpoise, and burrow through it like a gopher, and toss it up and let it hit me on the head!”). “The Sport of Tycoons” debuted in print in 1981′s The Fine Art of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck by Carl Barks.

The piece, part of the Kerby Confer Collection, was accompanied by the Heritage Auctions sales of two other Barks originals — “Sheriff of Bullet Valley” ($107,550), and “McDuck of Duckburg” ($101,575).

The auction also saw Jerry Robinson’s original cover art for 1942′s Detective Comics #67, the first Penguin cover, fetch $239,000, which Heritage dubs the second-highest price for a piece of American comic-book art.

From Uncanny X-Men #137

Comics | An original page by John Byrne and Terry Austin from Uncanny X-Men #137, the 1980 issue that featured the death of Phoenix, sold at auction Wednesday for $65,725. As ICv2 notes, the sale continues the trend of 1980s comic art going for high prices; a page of Frank Miller art from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #3 sold for $448,125 in May. [ICv2.com]

Digital | ICv2′s Milton Griepp makes the case for publishers to provide sales information on digital comics. “Why would this information be useful? There are a number of reasons. One is that it would help distributors (most importantly, Diamond Comic Distributors) and retailers selling physical comics and graphic novels identify which titles have the largest audiences in digital form. They could then make sure that they’re merchandising the top digital titles appropriately, so they can take advantage of demand for physical titles that results from digital exposure (we’ve been hearing that there’s a significant phenomenon of digital purchasers looking for collections of comics they’ve purchased online). Digital demand can also indicate potential demand for physical books from consumers that aren’t purchasing digitally; a good book, after all, is a good book, and if digital purchasers are finding a title that’s not as popular in physical form, it may indicate that there’s an untapped market of consumers of physical books as well.” [ICv2.com]

Bil Keane

Creators | R.C. Harvey writes the definitive obituary of Bil Keane, with samples of his humor and a very complete history of his work. [The Comics Journal]

Creators| Max Allan Collins discusses his work on Return to Perdition. [USA Today]

Creators | Scott Tuft, co-writer with Scott Snyder of the Image comic Severed, talks about writing the book with his longtime friend. [Biff Bam Pop]

Creators | Joanne Huang looks at Steven Seagle’s use of Superman as a character to explore issues in his own life, including dealing with Huntington’s Disease, in his graphic novel It’s a Bird … [Swarthmore College Daily Gazette]

Creators | Eva Volin interviews Jason T. Kruse, creator of the graphic novel World of Quest and the artist for Scratch 9. [Good Comics for Kids]

Lost Trail

Creators | The local paper interviews Donn Fendler, whose story of spending nine days lost in the wilderness on Mount Katahdin is the basis for the new graphic novel Lost Trail. [The Bangor Daily News]

Comics | The family of Gilbert Bouchard, an Edmonton, Alberta, Canada arts writer who passed away in 2009, has donated his more than 3,700 single-issue comics and related materials to the University of Alberta. [Edmonton Journal]

Comics | Chris Sims looks at the fashion history of Darkseid. [ComicsAlliance]

Comics | The New York Times presents its gift guide for comics fans. Despite the headline “A Superhero for Your Stocking,” the suggestions are mostly other types of graphic novels. [The New York Times]

Organizations | Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, spoke at the 20th annual Conference on Libraries and the Future about the history of comics censorship and the challenges comics will face in the future. Audio of his speech and his presentation are available on the conference’s website. [CBLDF]

Courtesy of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Prices of Steve Rude’s artwork have been reduced in an effort to raise money for bail and legal fees following his arrest late Monday in what’s characterized as a dispute with neighbors.

“Steve has had a back and forth with the neighbors for quite some time now that started over their barking dogs,” states a message on Rude’s website titled “Help Bail the Dude Out.” “Last night Steve got hauled in.”

While details are scant, the Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff’s Office lists the Nexus co-creator as being held on charges of assault and failure to comply with a court order.

Rude’s art auctions can be viewed on his website and on eBay.

Update (Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 6:50 a.m. PT): Rude’s wife Jaynelle wrote last night on his Facebook page that he was able to post bail, but that they’re still in need of financial assistance: “Now we have to pay for the legal counsel so he doesn’t end up back doing hard time for trying to keep his sanity. All he wants is to be left alone to create his art, not harassed by people who call the police on our kids because a frisbee ended up in their yard.”

Characterized by Matt Fraction as “the most important $412 dollars in comics history,” the check written to a young Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in part, for the rights to Superman, has surfaced among the items for an upcoming auction.

“Have you ever made a business decision that haunted you?” writer Gerry Duggan tweeted Monday, pointing to images of the check. “This piece of true comics history will make you feel better.”

Indeed that check, written March 1, 1938, by Detective Comics Publisher Jack Liebowitz, has been key to several legal and moral disputes, the first beginning barely a year after its signing. (Bleeding Cool notes an April 6, 1939, stamp on the back for the U.S. District Court of New York, suggesting it was entered as evidence in DC’s copyright-infringement lawsuit against Bruns Publications over the Will Eisner-created Wonder Man.)

Of the $412, $130 was for the rights to Superman; the remaining $282 was in payment for stories contributed to Detective Comics, Adventure Comics and More Fun Comics. It’s worth pointing out that Liebowitz managed to misspell the last names of both Siegel and Shuster, leading them to sign twice on the back.

The check will be among the items from Siegel’s personal collection auctioned Nov. 14-30 by Comic Connect. Other memorabilia include Siegel’s favorite suit and tie, clumps of his hair — yes, you read that correctly — his personal typewriter and a Superman script.

“Much has been made of the original 1938 $130 payment to Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster,” Comic Connect said in a statement. “Did DC Comics take advantage of two eager young men looking for their big break in the comic business or was this unequivocally fair business practice between comic book writers and publishers in a 1938 America? Whatever you believe, the $130 check is the quintessential symbol of this debate for the ages.”

Officially unveiled Tuesday on Comic Book Resources, The Secret Service is the duo’s long-simmering first-time collaboration, based on an idea by Millar, Gibbons and Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn (who holds the film rights to the project). More details will be revealed next month in CLiNT #12.

As he did with Kick-Ass, Nemesis and Superior, Millar is auctioning off the opportunity to name a character in The Secret Service — specifically, the villain — with the proceeds going to charity. This time the beneficiary is St. Bartholomew’s Primary School Pantomime Fund, established by Millar (a former student there) and Head Teacher Christine Boyle. The current bid on the eBay auction is $3,100, with mere hours to go.

The six-issue miniseries is set to debut in February.

A piece of artwork by “The King” has resurfaced in an auction from the estate of one-time Kirby inker Marven Stein. This artwork is from an aborted comic strip pitch called Space Busters by Kirby and writer Dave Wood. The strip never saw life, instead evolving into another strip titled Sky Masters of the Space Force, which was syndicated in 1958. In 2000, Pure Imagination collected them in a single tome that’s worth tracking down.

Created in the mid-50s, this was after Kirby’s initial tenure at Marvel (then Timely) in the 1930s and ’40s, but before he returned to the publisher in the ’60s for the creation of the Marvel universe as we know it. Kirby’s ’50s work is relatively under-appreciated given the commercial peaks for him in the ’40s and ’50s, but this work shows Kirby as his style evolves into what he later became famous (again) for at Marvel.

Check out this page, and get in on the bidding when it starts Nov. 4!

The flaw in question is a little green teardrop above Sinestro’s ear (you can see it in the image on the right). DC asks retailers to report the flawed copies to Diamond Comic Distributors by Monday. Replacement copies will arrive on Oct. 12, the same day as Green Lantern #2.

Naturally, a flawed copy has already made its way onto eBay, where the starting bid is $9.99. However, what DC labels “a printing error,” the seller characterizes as a sly maneuver by the publisher: “I’VE PLACED THE TEARDROP MISPRINT COVER IN ONE PHOTO AND REGULAR COVER ON THE OTHER PHOTO. ITS REALLY OBVIOUS. I’LL LET YOU BE THE JUDGE, CALL IT WHATEVER YOU LIKE. I think it was intentional especially with a launch of this magnitude.”

What DC would get out of it, I don’t know. But far be it for me to question a shrewd owner of an “unread, NM, dripping wet off the presses” copy of the “Teardrop Misprint Variant.”

RETAILER ADVISORY: PRINTING ERROR ON SOME COPIES OF GREEN LANTERN #1

DC Comics has received reports of a printing error on the front cover of some copies of GREEN LANTERN #1 (JUL110218). The flaw is an irregular green loop that appears above Sinestro’s ear.

Please check all of your copies for the flaw and report any flawed copies as damages to Diamond by Monday, September 19. DC is working to pull copies printed for other markets to replace the damaged copies, but we need to know the size of the problem and we need to audit our existing inventories to avoid sending out additional flawed copies.

Replacement copies will be scheduled to arrive in stores October 12, the same day issue #2 is scheduled to arrive in stores.

Amazing Spider-Man #49

Heritage Auctions expects the original art for the cover to Amazing Spider-Man #49 to go for around $100,000 when it goes up for auction later this month.

Drawn by John Romita Sr., the cover features Kraven the Hunter and the Vulture double-teaming Spider-Man. According to Ed Jaster, senior vice president at Heritage Auctions, it’s only the second cover by Romita they’ve offered for auction.

In addition to the Spider-Man cover, several other comic-related items will go up for bid in Heritage Auctions’ Signature Vintage Comics & Comic Art Auction on Aug. 17-18. These include Victor Moscoso’s original treatment for the wraparound cover to Zap Comix #4, Steve Ditko’s original art for page 17 of The Amazing Spider-Man #12, a George Herriman hand-colored Krazy Kat Sunday comic strip and a page of art from an unpublished Superman story by Joe Shuster, Paul Cassidy and Wayne Boring.

Jungle Action #17

Clifford Meth passes along word that, because of family medical expenses, former Killraven and Black Panther writer Don McGregor has been forced to auction his collection of art from comics he wrote.

“I won’t allow art dealers to steal these from him,” Meth writes. “And I am not expert enough, despite the posturing, to know what these pieces are really worth. So here’s the deal: Some friends of mine and I are bidding on Don’s art while spreading the word far and wide. We are hoping you’ll beat our bids because we want Don to get top dollar.”

A rundown of the art, by such creators as Rich Buckler, Gene Colan and Marshall Rogers, can be found here. Bids are being accepted on McGregor’s Facebook page until “Don says, ‘I’ll take it!’” Meth also asks for any artists interested in helping to make “small drawings” of characters that McGregor worked on. “I’ll be the first bidder and I’ll bid generously… and I expect others to do the same.”

from The Dark Knight Returns

Heritage Auctions expected to bring in $100,000 for page 10 of The Dark Knight Returns #3. It turns out their estimate was a little bit on the low side.

The piece actually sold for $448,125 to an anonymous collector — “the single most valuable piece of American comic art to ever sell,” the auction house said in a press release.

“I’ve always loved that drawing,” said Frank Miller, who drew the landmark Batman: The Dark Knight Returns miniseries, before the auction. “Danced around my studio like a fool when I drew it. I hope it finds a good home.”

“Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns defined the best of 1980s comics, and has since been universally acknowledged as one of the most important and influential stories ever published,” said Ed Jaster, senior vice president of Heritage Auctions, “and no image from that important comic series is more iconic than this Splash Page. It’s a little surprising, yes, but fitting that this piece is now the most expensive piece of American comic art ever sold at auction.”

Per the press release, the previous record price for a piece of original American comic book art was set last year when the cover of EC comics Weird Fantasy #29, by artist Frank Frazetta, sold at Heritage via a private treaty sale for $380,000. That of course was a cover, which typically sell for higher prices than interior art. Typically ….

“Heritage auctioned Frank Miller’s original artwork for the cover of Daredevil #188 for $101,575 last year,” said Jaster, “so we knew there were serious buyers out there, especially for Miller’s top work. Now we know for sure what collectors are willing to pay. This piece is far away the current king. Nothing else has even come close.”

Borders

Retailing | A judge on Friday approved a proposal to pay Borders Group executives up to $6.6 million in bonuses as the bookseller reorganizes under federal bankruptcy protection. The company had originally requested $8.3 million — that figure met with objections from the U.S. bankruptcy trustee — in a bid to retain key corporate personnel. Since Borders filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 16, 47 executives and director-level employees have left, leaving only 15 people in senior management positions.

The approved plan comes with conditions, tying some bonuses to the company’s ability to pay creditors and save $10 million over the next two years in leases on the remaining stores or in non-personnel cost reductions. [Businessweek, AnnArbor.com]

Publishing | Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson talks more about the publisher’s recent layoffs, saying that some reports of the cutbacks were overblown: “We have 150 employees. We let seven people go across three different divisions. What is that 4%, 5%? Our staff was just getting too large. The real reason for the layoffs is that we get worried about the cost of doing business. We’re sitting there looking at the rising health insurance costs, the changes in the cost of doing business. We thought we were going to get some relief in the form of cover prices moving to $3.99, but I guess the market’s made a really strong statement on that price. Meanwhile we’re getting squeezed on paper and printing costs at the same time — and creators certainly don’t want to take any less money.” [ICv2.com]

Gene Colan

Creators | Clifford Meth reports that legendary artist Gene Colan is hospitalized again, awaiting surgery. “Despite his legendary optimism, Gene’s situation is tenuous,” he writes. “His family hopes he can undergo a procedure early this week that may alleviate his pain. Regardless, it’s unlikely that my pal will be drawing for anyone anytime soon.” To help generate “what might become much-needed funds,” Meth is coordinating an auction of the last of Colan’s artwork. Details are available at the link. [The Invincible Gene Colan Blog]

Creators | Shaun Tan is the subject of an extensive profile in The New York Times Magazine. [The New York Times]

Creators | Noelene Clark spotlights cartoonist Karl Stevens, whose graphic novel The Lodger is nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. [Hero Complex]

Creators | Adrian Tomine discusses Scenes from an Impending Marriage, living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and why he doesn’t use Facebook or Twitter: “I know I’m in the minority here, but in my mind, it would make more sense to be asking other 36-year-olds, ‘Why ARE you on Facebook and Twitter?’ Especially now that I’m married and I have a kid, it just never occurs to me to spend my precious spare time trying to interact with complete strangers over the Internet. Besides, I’d have the most boring ‘tweets’ of all time: ‘I just gave Nora lunch. I’m sitting at my drawing table.  I just changed Nora’s diaper. I’m sitting at my drawing table.’” [Park Slope Patch]

Pearls Before Swine

Creators | Brett Johnson profiles Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis. [Ventura County Star]

Creators | John Layman chats about his hit Image Comics series Chew. [Fangoria]

Retailing | Rich Johnston reports on rumblings that Barnes & Noble plans to expand its comic book offerings. [Bleeding Cool]

Retailing | Brad Wilson, owner of Allstar Comics & Games in El Paso, Texas, marks 25 years in business. [El Paso Times]

Retailing | Reed Tucker asks a selection of New York City comic stores for reading recommendations to accompany the summer’s superhero movies. [New York Post]

Conventions | Kara Patterson reports on Harmony Con 2011, a mini comic-book fair held Saturday at Harmony Cafe in Appleton, Wisc. [Appleton Post-Crescent]

Amazon Kindle

E-books | Amazon announced it will allow Kindle users to read e-books from more than 11,000 libraries, marking a reversal of the company’s policy. Previously library users who borrowed e-books could read them on Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the Sony Reader and other devices, but not the Kindle. “We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” Jay Marine, Amazon’s director of Kindle, said in a statement. The Kindle Library Lending will debut later this year. [The New York Times, press release]

Publishing | Several DC Comics staff members laid off as part of the sweeping corporate restructuring — among them, editors Mike Carlin and Pornsak Pichetshote — have been hired by DC Entertainment’s newly formed Burbank-based Creative Affairs division, which operates alongside Creative Services. [Bleeding Cool]

Legal | Japanese police have arrested a 25-year-old man suspected of using Share file-sharing software to upload about 28,000 manga and anime files without the copyright holders’ permission. [Anime News Network]

Tokyopop

Publishing | Sam Humphries and J. Caleb Mozzocco join in the reflection on the closing of Tokyopop’s U.S. publishing operations. [Comics Alliance, Every Day Is Like Wednesday]

Publishing | IDW Publishing is auctioning all 83 variants of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1, with the proceeds going to AmeriCares to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. [IDW Publishing]

Retailing | Borders Group, which is closing 226 superstores, is paying a dozen consultants more than $500 an hour to guide the company through the bankruptcy process. [AnnArbor.com]

Retailing | Kevin Czap tours Cleveland’s comic stores. [Comix Cube]

Far Arden

Creators | Far Arden creator Kevin Cannon has been dubbed the best cartoonist in Minneapolis. [City Pages, via Top Shelf]

Creators | Matt Fraction talks about the new Mighty Thor series: “Is he a superhero, is he a god? Is it a little g or a big G and what does that mean? Is my god better than your god, and does Jesus live somewhere? It’s also fun to refer to big Gs and then cut to Galactus.” [USA Today]

Creators | Jonathan Valelly spotlights Chester Brown and the official book launch for Paying For It. [Xtra]

Creators | Cowboys & Aliens co-writer Andrew Foley discusses the upcoming movie adaptation. [Edmonton Sun]

Duffman

Legal | The Lithuanian publisher of The Simpsons comic has been fined for breaching laws banning the advertising of alcohol with its depiction of Duff Beer, the fictional brand consumed by Homer and other residents of Springfield.

Although Simpsons creator Matt Groening has never licensed the Duff trademark out of concern that it might encourage children to drink, companies in several countries have released beer using the Duff name (Fox and Groening sued an Australian brewery for doing so in 1995, forcing the product to be pulled from shelves and destroyed). The existence of unlicensed Duff beers apparently was enough for a government watchdog, who handed down the more than $4,000 fine. The publisher said it has stopped publication of The Simpsons while it tries to address the Duff matter — a major issue, considering that Bongo Comics reportedly doesn’t permit content changes to licensed titles. [The Australian]

Mike Richardson

Publishing | Dark Horse President Mike Richardson talks frankly about recent layoffs, subsequent comments made by a former employee, recent publishing decisions and the company’s digital strategy: “We have a very large staff for a comic book company, probably as large or larger than Marvel or DC. As we look going forward, in recent years we’ve had to resort to wage freezes as we try to bear the brunt of the health costs and rising business expenses. As we see those rising we have to figure out how to deal with them. We made some very hard choices and did the best we could over that. Rather than considering wage freezes and passing on more health care costs, I made a decision to do it a different way. One element of that cost-cutting was reducing our payroll and staff. On a personal level, it’s horrible. On a company level, it’s something you have to do from time to time. It’s not the first time and probably won’t be the last time, but for now we’re hoping it is, obviously.” [Comics Alliance]

Retailing | Retailer Steve Bennett recounts the accomplishments and failures of Tokyopop: “Publishers, Tokyopop chief amongst them, kept putting out an increasing number of titles that were entirely too similar to what was already on the shelves (especially when it came to supernatural romance harem comedies). Our store didn’t have the resources to order half of them and increasingly we were stuck with unsold, and frequently unsellable, product from what we did order, while simultaneously trying to put in reorders on the most popular series.” [ICv2.com]

The Amazing Spider-Man #1

Comics | Mary Lynn Smith profiles Gary Dahlberg, a 62-year-old Minneapolis man who died last summer in a house fire that spared his meticulously maintained comic collection that’s estimated to be worth between $1 million and $2 million. “As he got older, my mother would ask, ‘What are you going to do with all those books?’ My mother used to say they couldn’t be worth anything,” Dahlberg’s sister Wendy Kulper says. “I think my mom is now looking down and saying, ‘Sorry, I didn’t know.’” [Star-Tribune]

Retailing | Bill Lai, owner of Anime Castle in Flushing, Queens, is profiled. [WNYC]

Digital comics | Todd Allen surveys the market for kid-friendly downloads. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Eva Volin interviews ElfQuest creators Wendy and Richard Pini. [Good Comics for Kids]

Comics | A vacant building in downtown Haverhill, Mass., cartoonist Bob Montana’s inspiration for Riverdale, is being considered as the location for a possible comic-book hall of fame. [Eagle-Tribune]

Comics | The origin of Hulk villain The Leader. [Big Shiny Robot]

from The Dark Knight Returns

Billed as “one of the most important pieces of original comic book art Heritage has ever offered,” Heritage Auctions expects to bring in $100,000 or more for page 10 of The Dark Knight Returns #3 , drawn by Frank Miller.

The iconic shot, arguably one of the most recognizable images from the series besides the covers (and maybe even including the covers), features Batman and the Carrie Kelley Robin leaping through the night.

“Artwork from this famed series is much scarcer than anything else from the period, as demonstrated by the fact that Heritage has only offered two Dark Knight panel pages previously, along with the fact that any splash page – much less a such an undeniably classic image – has never been offered at auction,” Heritage reported in a press release. “This gem has been locked away in a single collection since being purchased upon the series’ original publication. Unlike many pages from the series, where differences between the original art and the published version are evident, no changes were made to this artwork for publication, and the original contains no paste-ups or stats – it’s pure art, just the way it appeared in print.”

Heritage will begin taking bids on April 16, with the final auction running May 5-6. More details on the auction can be found in the press release after the jump.

*****

Frank Miller’s 1986 Dark Knight Batman & Robin splash page, never before offered, expected to bring $100,000+ at Heritage Auctions
The most iconic piece of 1980s comic art in the series that revitalized Batman, offered May 5, in New York

NEW YORK – The iconic original art for the page 10 splash page from issue #3 of Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s The Dark Knight Returns, the comic series that almost single-handedly re-vitalized Batman, and defined the best of 1980s comics, is expected to bring $100,000+ when it comes up for auction as part of Heritage Auctions’ New York Signature® Vintage Comics & Comic Art Auction, May 5, at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (Ukranian Institute), 2 East 79th Street (at 5th Ave.)

“The Dark Knight Returns is universally acknowledged as one of the most important and influential superhero stories ever published,” said Todd Hignite, Consignment Director for Comic & Illustration Art at Heritage. “Miller is arguably the greatest superhero writer/artist to work during this period, and Dark Knight is his undisputed masterpiece.”

Prior to the four-issue series of The Dark Knight Returns, Batman had lost his perch among the superhero elite. When Miller’s masterpiece debuted it created an almost instant buzz and rejuvenated Batman as DC’s most popular character. In the process it also helped revitalize the comics industry as a whole.

“This splash page, to my mind, is the single most memorable image from the entire book and the greatest image from the decade ever to come to market,” said Ed Jaster, Senior vice President of Heritage Auctions, “as well as one of the handful of most desirable pieces of original comic art from any era to come to market. This one has everything going for it and has already generated considerable buzz in collecting circles.”

The amazing piece is a perfect stand-alone image of Batman and Robin (Carrie Kelley, the first female, full-time Robin) soaring high above Gotham City, an apt symbol of the entire intense storyline.

Artwork from this famed series is much scarcer than anything else from the period, as demonstrated by the fact that Heritage has only offered two Dark Knight panel pages previously, along with the fact that any splash page – much less a such an undeniably classic image – has never been offered at auction. This gem has been locked away in a single collection since being purchased upon the series’ original publication. Unlike many pages from the series, where differences between the original art and the published version are evident, no changes were made to this artwork for publication, and the original contains no paste-ups or stats – it’s pure art, just the way it appeared in print.

“Definitive is the only adequate description of this masterpiece,” said Hignite, “and as such, it was chosen to represent the entire time period in DC’s recent 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking book, serving as the chapter heading for “The Dark Age: 1984-1998,” and reproduced as a glorious color full-page image, leading off the chapter on page 556.”

In 2005, Time magazine ranked The Dark Knight Returns as one of the top 10 graphic novels ever created. No less than Alan Moore, one of the creators of The Watchmen, wrote about the series:

“Beyond the imagery, themes, and essential romance of Dark Knight, Miller has also managed to shape the Batman into a true legend by introducing that element without which all true legends are incomplete and yet which for some reason hardly seems to exist in the world depicted in the average comic book, and that element is time… time has come to the Batman and the capstone that makes legends what they are has finally been fitted. In his engrossing story of a great man’s final and greatest battle, Miller has managed to create something radiant, which should hopefully illuminate things for the rest of the comic book field, casting a new light upon the problems which face all of us working within the industry and perhaps even guiding us towards some fresh solutions.”

In short, this is one of the most important pieces of original comic book art Heritage has ever offered.

Heritage Auctions, headed by Steve Ivy, Jim Halperin and Greg Rohan, is the world’s third largest auction house, with annual sales more than $600 million, and 500,000+ online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and gain access to a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.

Want to get the up-to-the-minute updates and breaking news stories about Heritage Auctions? Get them as they happen at: www.Twitter.com/HeritageAuction; Facebook: www.HA.com/Facebook.To view a compete archive of Heritage press releases go to: HA.com/PR. To link to this press release on your blog or Website: HA.com/PR-1994.